As with the solar and wind pages, the hydro page begins with hydro resource analysis. Hydro projects can have higher volatility than other projects, but the flows experience mean reversion. Hydro projects also have longer lives than other projects meaning that re-financing can be an important issue. In the resource analysis on this page you are guided through a hypothetical run of the river plant that applies flow rate data. You apply the hydro power data where kW produced is a function of the flow rate, the head, the gravity coefficient and the efficiency of the plant. After working through the resource analysis, a financial exercise is included that demonstrates the importance of re-financing and measuring the cost of capital. In addition there is a discussion of simulating storage hydro for systems that have reservoirs.
Lesson Set 1: Hydro Resource Analysis
Files associated with Lesson Set 1: Hydro Resource Analysis
The first step in the lesson set is evaluating solar resource. The files first set of files involve putting solar data together in a file. The basis for computing P99 etc is the NREL website and download the zipped file for a location (sorry that this is only U.S. data). The first set are files work with detailed raw data from NREL that has hourly data from 1991-2010. If you try this, go to a file and then run the
Lesson Set 1: Hydro Resource Analysis
Files associated with Lesson Set 1: Hydro Resource Analysis
The first step in the lesson set is evaluating solar resource. The files first set of files involve putting solar data together in a file. The basis for computing P99 etc is the NREL website and download the zipped file for a location (sorry that this is only U.S. data). The first set are files work with detailed raw data from NREL that has hourly data from 1991-2010. If you try this, go to a file and then run the
Hydro Analysis
Videos associated with Lesson Set 1: Hydro Resource Analysis